The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) unveiled its legislator-at-large candidate list yesterday, with Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) topping the list and the People First Party (PFP) grabbing four of the 34 seats.
Former dean of Chi Mei Medical Center Steve Chan (
Two of the four PFP legislators who won the KMT nomination were Chang Hsien-yao (
Announcing the list following a four-hour meeting, KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yi (
"As the presidential election approaches, Chan's campaigning duties will only grow, especially in southern Taiwan, where he is very influential," Wu said at KMT headquarters.
Wu acknowledged the many difficulties in negotiating the list engendered by the single-member district, two-vote system and called on party members and supporters to support the candidates and maximize the safe zone.
If the KMT wins the presidential election, some of the legislators could be invited to join the government, which would create legislative opportunities for other individuals, Wu said.
The 18 candidates in the "safe zone" were Wang; KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱); KMT Policy Committee convener Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權); KMT Legislator Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛); KMT Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅); a PFP legislator; KMT Legislator Chin Chieh (陳杰); KMT Legislator Lee Jih-chu (李紀珠); a PFP legislator; the National Policy Foundation's Chao Li-yun (趙麗雲); KMT Legislator Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進); KMT Legislator Liao Wan-ju (廖婉汝); KMT Legislator Chi Kuo-tung (
Wu declined to confirm whether the party had ranked Wang No. 1 to promote his bid for reelection as speaker.
"If the pan-blue camp wins the majority in the legislature, we will give our blessings to Speaker Wang for his reelection," he said.
The party nominated Chiu -- now serving time in jail -- to honor his "dedication to bring various scandals to light," Wu said.
The list will be sent to the KMT Central Committee for final approval on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the KMT Central Standing Committee yesterday maintained its decision to omit the "1992 consensus" from its key mission statement for next year, despite opposition by deep-blue members and supporters. It said the "the KMT's cross-strait policies were based on the party charter and policy guidelines."
"The `1992 consensus' and the guidelines are already included in the party Charter, which is the cornerstone of the KMT's policies. It's not necessary to put all the contents of the Charter into a much less important document," KMT Spokesman Su Jun-pin (
At a separate setting, Vice President Annette Lu (
Additional reporting by Ko Shu-ling
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,